The Labor Department reported that overall nonfarm payrolls fell 54,000 due to the census layoff. This was much better than the 120,000 that economists had predicted. The lower decline in overall payrolls was due to strength in healthcare and temporary staffing industries, as private employers added 67,000 jobs in August, better than the 44,000 that was predicted.
The share of workers who were out of a job for six months or longer fell for the third straight month, to 42%. It was 46% in May. The number of Americans who were out of work for six months or longer also fell to 6.2 million, from 6.8 million in May. The unemployed total is at 14.9 million.